Saturday, December 22, 2007

ford crown victoria

As the manager, I'm allowed a couple perks. For instance, my office is in a shabby portable building with newspaper for insulation and even when I close my door, I have no privacy. Well, everyone is in the same boat on that front, so that's hardly a perk. And a discussion for some other time. However, my position and grade level do offer me some incentives. The one that's most entertaining is that I have a Ford Crown Victoria with 120,000 miles on it at my disposal. I can of course use it for any business purposes. If I wish to drive it home, I technically need to purchase additional insurance that costs about $150/year.

I don't especially care for it. I can see quite plainly why it is no longer being sold as a consumer vehicle and is now only available for fleet purchases, mostly government, especially police departments. The voluminous trunk can carry copious amounts of whatever police need plus any contraband they might seize. I'm thinking of taking the hubcaps off of the one that I drive, tinting the windows, putting a screen between the front and back seats, installing a grill guard, and getting a spotlight on the driver's side. It'll be fun pulling people over. All kidding (or am I?) aside, the Crown Vic rides like a boat. It literally feels like a boat being gently rocked by waves when I go around corners. The whole car has a tremendous amount of sway. Sure, it has lusty V8 power, but I've been doing some 'testing' and found that I can get the traction control light to come on when leaving from a stop. This was on dry pavement no less. I just floored the car to see what it could do and it didn't feel like it spun at all, but the traction control light came on. Of course, I'm not sure what the tach was at since there's no tachometer in the car. It does have a casette player, which is a step up from the F-350 I drove in Farmington. Let the good times roll.

No comments: